Many Christians are familiar with Pelagius, the Celtic monk who challenged Augustine of Hippo’s prayer, “Give what you command, and command what you will.” According to Pelagius, this was a useless prayer, because human beings already have what is necessary…
Part 1 can be found here. Alcuin & the Carolingian Renaissance Something should be said here on the impact Alcuin had on the Carolingian renaissance, especially the connection between Alcuin’s political theology and his philosophy of education. For Alcuin, true…
Introduction About three hundred and twenty-five years after Alaric sacked Rome, and the light of the Eternal City was fading into twilight, indeed, with the sudden rise of vicious Viking raids around Europe, these were dark days. What made them…
Mathieu Majal Désubas – A Young Huguenot Martyr Huguenots in 18th-century France were well-aware of the dangers they faced by attending Protestant services. Many had been Protestants since birth, children or grandchildren of a generation that had enjoyed some…
Elisabeth Cruciger – The First Lutheran Female Hymnwriter Elisabeth Cruciger is considered the first Lutheran female hymnwriter. Born around 1500 as Elisabeth von Mezerite to a noble family in Pomerania (a region in today’s Poland), she entered as a child…
Lactantius – An Original Writer Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was born around the year 255 in North Africa. Quickly earning a reputation for his intellectual prowess, in 290 he was invited by Emperor Diocletian to serve as professor of…
Sybil Mosely Bingham and the Challenges of Missionary Life in Hawaii Sybil’s admission to the mission field reminds me of a scene of a movie. She was asking for directions to her accommodations when a young man offered…
As I think about my church family, so many older and younger men and women, as well as covenant children, come to mind. I have come to know and love them, and pray for them often. Just like in families,…
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke – Learning to Number His Days “One thing Christianity and we National Socialists have in common, and only one: we demand the whole man.” These words, pronounced by Roland Freisler, State Secretary of the Reich,…
In 2011, then 63-year-old Italian History Professor Roberto De Mattei made the following statement about the decline of Rome: “The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to the spread of homosexuality… The Roman…
